Monday, August 20, 2012

Coming Out of Retirement

To say that Hardrock was the toughest thing I’ve ever done means a lot. I’ve
done Badwater peeing Brown, and I’ve ran for 40 hours straight down the Pacific
Coast; Hardrock was tougher than both those events combined. When I was going
into the race, I was having anxiety coping with the magnitude of the event, and
I told myself I’d retire from ultra running after this race to assuage my
fears.

To a degree, I did. I spent weekends doing easy runs instead
of my typical 5+ hours runs. I still ran everyday, but sometimes it was just
twenty minutes in the flats. Then the kidney stones hit and it really made me
stop for a few days. That hard stop made me appreciate the big void in my day
when I don’t run at all. I got back in the flow at Mt. Disappointment 50k, but
felt so awkward running fast on the fire roads, and felt so awful in the high
heat that I wondered what I really wanted to train for next. I had planned on a
little less mountainous terrain than Hardrock (which is pretty much everything
in the states), and I started to second guess if I even had any talent or
desire left for that hard 6-8:00 pace running.

Then, this past Sunday I joined a dozen other Socal runners
at Vivian Creek to head up 11,499 ft. San Gorgonio. The trail wasn’t as bad as
Hardrock, but it wasn’t nearly as easy as jogging around the West Fork of the
San Gabriel river the week before. I casually jogged with Balmore and would
wait at the intersections when I got a bit ahead. My mind didn’t worry about
what pace we were making for the 8.5mi/5,500ft climb, or any possible training
goals, I just ran and enjoyed my company. When we neared the top, I had a
little ½ mile race with Pedro over the last 300ft gradual climb to the top. The
other hikers breathing heavily stared incredulously as I ran by like I was out
for a brisk Sunday jog along Venice Beach. When I tagged the marker, I was even
a bit surprised how comfortable I felt. The months of developing my high
altitude abilities had actually left a mark on me.

Today I spent a few minutes searching for races. I stopped on the Run Rabbit
Run page for a bit. I’m going to go back into normal training this week and see
how I feel, but a large part of me wants to be in Steamboat in a month.

Weekly Recaps:

August 6-12
55 miles, 11,000ft

-33/7,000ft of that was at the Mt. Disappointment 50k. 5:11
for 2nd place, 11 minutes behind Jorge wasn’t too bad for me. I had
to make 3 bathroom stops due to a bit too many beans the night before and I
wasn’t very heat acclimated. I gave up some unnecessary time on the climb up to
Shortcut that is very run-able when it isn’t over 100 degrees. Overall though,
I had fun other than redlining in the heat at the bottom of Wilson. I
definitely could run 20-30 minutes faster in cooler temps and faster training.
The 50 miler next year is going to be tempting so close to AC.

August 13-19
51 miles, 12,500

-I enjoyed summiting Gorgonio. Definitely the most relaxed
I’ve ever felt on that mountain. Could’ve ran up a bit faster, but had a good
push down from High Camp to Halfway Camp with Pedro. Just a beautiful day in
some uncharacteristically wet and lush Socal Mountains.